The name of the game is Matrix Online, world of amazing fights and true heroics. Where everyone can be a hero and leap from building to building in a single fluid leap, fight agents with one hand tied behind your back and look stunningly stylish while you do it. The possibilities seem limitless.

Or so you would think.

From the movies, comics and animated series, the story of the Matrix world is rich and detailed. The Matrix Online is a continuation from the end of the last movie and finally gives us, the viewer, a chance to be part of the story.

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When you enter the world of the Matrix you get a choice to be a part of three Primary factions, Zion, The Machines and The Merovingians. Automatically upon character creation you start out as the Zion primary faction. This can easily be changed by taking missions with one of the three factions. As you do more missions for your primary faction you gain fame with them and thus favour. Also available are missions that are part of the main storyline. During these storyline missions you are able to meet some of the big characters in the movies, such as Commander Lock and Niobe.

Now that you've decided which side you're on you can go about finding others to play with. This is where it gets a little confusing. Within each primary faction you have player made factions and crews. Crews are part of player factions and many crews can be part of a single player faction within a primary faction. This is also where a lot of it fell down for me. There are a lot of player factions and crews. Many times there are crews and factions that seem large but only have a couple of active players. This makes things a bit lonely. Like most MMOs there are some large factions and crews, but not a lot. If you can find a very active crew and faction then you are lucky and will have a lot of good company to accompany you on your way through the Matrix world then you will enjoy this game a lot.

Events happen on a fairly regular basis and can give you a needed break of missions and PvP. The stories told in the events bring you into the world and makes you part of it. Large scale holiday events, such as the Halloween event, are server-wide and go on for many days giving everyone a chance to fully enjoy what the developers have put together for the players.

One of the first things you notice when you log into any game is the quality of the graphics. The detail and style being some of the first impressions the game will make on you. The Matrix Online won't let you down.

From the very first moment you load into the world, after character creation, the graphics are wonderful. The world that surrounds you is full of detail and movement. From the insides of the buildings to the NPCs wandering the streets, the attention to detail is evident and very much a pleasure to look at.

While the detail and graphics of Matrix Online are well above board, they won't make your computer crawl to a stop even at max levels. Even on a lower quality video card, the game can perform rather well even if it doesn't look nearly as good. This is a bonus to Matrix as it opens up a larger market of machines that can run the game.